THE RHINOCEROS. 327 



actually portray it as covered with sucli a defensive covering. 

 The hide is said to be exceedingly easy to detach from the body, 

 as the quality is so hard and stiflivthat it separates from the flesh 

 like the peel of a ripe orange. The skin is of a deep purplish- 

 grey colour, and is nearly if not perfectly bare, except on the tail 

 and the ears which have a few coarse and stiff hairs. Bach shield 

 of the hide is thickly studded with slightly raised tubercles, nearly 

 circular in shape, and which again convey the idea of armour by 

 giving the skin the appearance of being covered with innumerable 

 bolts whose heads are visible. 



The skin, from having these thick and tough-looking folds, is 

 generally described as being nearly invulnerable, even to modern 

 weapons, and that it is only by firing at the joints in the harness 

 that a bullet can be made to penetrate. 



Colonel Kinlock refutes this idea by the narration of the follow- 

 ing incident : " I recollect," he writes, " an amusing story of a 

 soldier in the Mutiny, who was placed in the guard-room for 

 shooting a tame rhinoceros which had been captured by his 

 regiment. His defence was that he had read in a book that the 

 hide of the animal was bullet-proof, and being of an inquiring 

 turn of mind, had determined to put the theory to the test ; as the 

 shot was well directed, the unfortunate subject of the experiment 

 fell dead, and the prize fund was several thousand rupees the poorer. 



" As a matter of fact the skin is quite soft when fresh ; a bullet 

 will penetrate anywhere with the greatest ease, and a hunting 

 knife can be driven through it with the slightest amount of force. 

 When dried, of course, it becomes extremely hard, and used to be 

 in great request for the manufacture of shields. The hide when 

 pohshed is very handsome and semi-transparent, and when held 

 up to the light looks exactly like tortoise-shell, the tubercles 

 giving it a beautiful mottled appearance." 



This well-known sportsman gives several other interesting 

 particulars regarding the animal. He states that, despite it 

 being such an ungainly beast, it is possessed of considerable speed, 

 and although its usual gait when disturbed is a long, swinging 

 trot, it occasionally breaks into a lumbering gallop, the pace of 

 which is surprising. 



